Culture

Pons Maior and quay

The connections between the Northern quay of the DuriaMaior, where the Eporedia was, and the Southern one was guaranteed by the Ponte Vecchio, which even today preserves the Roman structure at the base with only two asymmetric arches, and the even more monumental Ponte Maggiore, build approximately 500 metres downstream. The remains of the structure, emerging the first time in the river bed during the flood of 1977, they were studied and documented during the work …

Roman Amphitheatre

Towards the end of the 1st century AD even Eporedia was equipped with an amphitheatre, a large elliptical building destined to house ten to fifteen thousand spectators, dedicated to gladiator games, hunting shows and capital execution of “dannati ad bestias”, meaning those condemned to be torn to pieces or torn to shreds by ferocious beasts.

The complex was along the road towards Vercelli, at the South placed against an imposing wall whose purpose was to support …

Roman Ivrea

The Pretoria Gate probably stood at the entrance of the current Via Palestro, but no traces of this have ever been found. Instead, it is certain that the street followed the route of the Decumanus Maximum, because during various restoration work the antique Roman paving of the ducumano was found, slightly wider than 5 metres, where many cardines minores converged.

Next to the entrance of Via Palestro, the building that houses the branch of the IstitutoBancario San …

San Bernardino Church

According to tradition and historical sources, the San Bernardino building complex was built between 1455 and 1465, it was dedicated to the sain from Siena that touched Ivrea in 1418, during itinerant preaching aimed at containing the spread of new heretical ideas. Once the adequate site was fount not far outside of the city, construction started the 14th of September 1455. Building works were finished in 1457, but the church, having only one square nave with cross- …

San Gaudenzio Church

The San Gaudenzio church is on the right bank of the Dora Baltea, beyond the Borghetto district, in an area that was once countryside. When it was built, the small church stood solitary on a small high ground located outside of the Ivrea residential area. It was built between 1716 and 1724, on ruins of a fortification called Castelletto (1705). Superintendence was assigned to the Prevost of the Cathedral don Lorenzo Pinchia and the Municipality, along with the …

San Grato Chapel and Hermitage

Built on the ParajAuta hill, the small church dates back to the XII Century and, initially dedicated to San Giovanni, in the 16th Century it was dedicated to San Grato, invoked during plagues. Originally the only nave was divided into two spans, anther one was added in the XVII Century and the bell tower was built subsequently. Next to the chapel there is a building (hermitage) used until the beginning of the 20th Century by the hermit, who was in charge of …

San Lorenzo Parish Church and Baptistery

The architectural complex of San Lorenzo (VIII-IX Century) is considered one of the most important of Piedmont. The church, with a single arched ceiling room, it has a rectangular apse and two chapels, destined to house sarcophagus, which stick out on the side as a transept. Only during a subsequent period the left arm of the transept and the baptistery were connected using a hallway where two other sarcophaguses are buried. Many frescos, which can be dated to the …

San Michele Arcangelo Church

Of late Roman origin, the church was rebuilt in Romanesque era (XII Century) by inverting its orientation. The naves were separated by quadrangular pillars and the deep apse anded in a semi-circle; the above-elevated presbytery extended along the first bay of the central nave and was accessible through a stone staircase. The building has lived, starting from the fifteenth century, different transformation phases that only spared the bell tower, inserted in the …

Santa Maria Church

The church, located on an embarkment that dominates the plane, is delimited by the remains of a Medieval era stone city wall. The current building is the result of radical transformations completed in the 18th and 19th Centuries; only a portion of the inside wall remains of the Romanesque building, presenting a fragment of a fresco from the 15th Century representing the Virgin Mary and Saint Caterina. Intact in its Romanesque forms instead is the beautiful bell …

Santa Maria Maddalena Church

The church rises on a rock outcropping of Serra d’Ivrea, close to the community in the Burolo municipality with the same name. The structure consists of three buildings: the church with a single rectangular room, finishing with a semi-circular apse; a room on the right, used as a sacristy today; the bell tower next to the facade with double access doors, connected to the other two sides by a wall. The wall between the bell tower and the sacristy delimits a small …